26 MARCH 1864, Page 1
More than 9,000 clergymen—that is, we presume, more than half
the clergymen of England and Ireland—are said to have signed the Oxford declaration that they hold the Bible to be the Word of God, and not merely to contain it ; and also that the punishment of the cursed equally with the life of the righteous lasts for ever. In other words, half the English clergy have abjured all but textual criticism of the most wonderful history and literature in the world, and assented to a doctrine which ought to make them maniacs of remorse, if they have ever lost a moment that might have helped to snatch a single human being out of the hands of God. We now know that nine thousand English clergy- men ought to think capital punishment the most shocking of poli- tical crimes.
